MacD is a manufacturer, they're not obliged, actually cannot manufacture anyone else's products. A closer analogy would be if I opened a mall in your city, got the local council to agree that my mall was the only one allowed for the next 50 years and then allowed only MacD to open up shop, denying space to other burger joints even if they offered the same rent.
Still not true analogy as Apple don't prevent competitions inside the mall.
Anyway finding a physical world analogy will be though so maybe we should resign trying. (Fact that duplicatinga/delivering cost for digital product is close to zero is an example of why physical analogy will often fail)
There is no real world analogy because no brick and mortar company would get away with something like this.
A close analogy would be Apple owning every shopping mall in the world, charging shop owners annual rent AND taking 30% of their revenue. Also as part of their lease agreement, Apple forbids tenants from selling their products out of their own independent shop or even out of their own homes or websites. Could you imagine how much more expensive goods would be if shopping mall landlords took 30% off the top line of every tenant?
Of course you could say there's Google Play, but your Android app is a different product from your iPhone app. Also, Google Play conveniently has the exact same arrangement with the same 30% commission, so it's basically just a parallel universe where people are stuck in one or the other.
I don't know how they have gotten away with this for so long. Imagine if Microsoft took 30% of the revenue of every Windows app developer (of course beginning after their monopoly was already established)! They couldn't even get away with bundling a web browser into their operating system. What Apple is doing is far worse.
Microsoft had a monopoly on operating systems and were leveraging that to win the browser wars. Apple does not have a monopoly on smartphones and consequently cannot be using that monopoly as leverage. Monopolies aren’t even a problem in and of themselves, it’s leveraging them that’s generally illegal.
They have a monopoly on distribution of apps for iPhones. You literally aren't allowed to sell anywhere else and they are leveraging it for an outrageous 30%
Well if it's the leverage that's the problem, then we have a problem. Google and Apple are exerting the leverage of a monopoly (30% revenue tax) despite each not having a monopoly according to the classic definition, at least. It doesn't matter if each have 45% market or one has 90% if they're allowed to behave as if they each have 100%.
They do restrict competition in the app store. Especially if it competes with apple itself. They just banned app store app that tracked down lost airpod via realitive (Bluetooth?/WiFi?)signal strength for PR reasons.
Interesting. Is there a website with a database where people can claim which apps have been removed from the App Store just for historical sake, or to reference to?
